Organisational Predictors of In-Role Job Performance of Nurses in the Australian Healthcare sector: A Psychometric Analysis of Training Effectiveness and the Mediating and Moderating roles of Work Environment and Organisational Change

Training and development is often the organisational response to an individual employee not performing in their job role. However, many factors can play a significant role in the job performance of an employee. The work environment in which employees work today greatly impacts on their ability to perform their job; this can be significantly different from their desired performance. The impact of external constructs, such as work environment and organisational change, is of great concern as despite their skills and abilities employees may still be unable to complete the tasks required in their job role to the level at which they have talent, or desire to perform. Literature on the in-role job performance, work environment, organisational change and training narrow the boundaries around these concepts. Despite this, the relationships between these constructs and how they impact each other is not explicitly discerned, lack empirical backing or often report conflicting results. The purpose of this research is to examine variables influencing in-role job performance. Variables included in this research are work environment, attitude towards organisational change, training effectiveness, organisational citizenship behaviour, non-mandatory training and intention to quit. These variables are examined under the framework of five theories; organisational development theory, job performance, person–environment fit theory, self-efficacy and reasoned action theory.
Data were collected through an online survey for both the pilot study and main data collection, with 486 participants responding. Factor analysis was performed to examine the factor structure of each of the constructs; confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical linear regression analysis was conducted to further examine the relationships between the constructs and test hypotheses.
Results revealed several significant relationships between the variables indicating the importance of a broad lens when managing job performance. First, training effectiveness was found to have a moderating influence on the relationship between attitude towards organisational change and in-role job performance. Second, work environment was found to fully mediate the relationship between training effectiveness and task performance. Third, accepting and cynical attitudes were found to mediate the relationship between training effectiveness and organisational citizenship behaviour; however, a fearful attitude was found not to influence this relationship. Finally, context performance was found to mediate the relationship between organisational citizenship behaviour and intention to quit. The theoretical implications and contributions of these findings are presented, along with recommendations for practice.
The study has some has some limitations that future research might address. They include common method variance, generalisation of findings and additional instrumental constructs should be considered in future research. In conclusion, this study offers a number of contributions and significant implications for theory and practice in the organisational behaviour and job performance field.